


The Adoption Sequence - First: Cooper, Age 3

by rei_c



Series: Cannibalism Aside (Samn) [26]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Accidental Death, Adopted Children, Adoption, Boy King of Hell Sam Winchester, Demon Dean Winchester, Family Feels, Gun Violence, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, POV Child, Parent Dean Winchester, Parent Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-17 22:42:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5888098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rei_c/pseuds/rei_c
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cooper is sick and he wants a nap and then Mommy and Daddy turn out to be bad guys and the two who come to take care of him sound so <i>pretty</i> when they talk to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Adoption Sequence - First: Cooper, Age 3

**Author's Note:**

> I had no idea how to tag 'accidental gun death due to a child picking up a gun' along with 'purposeful gun death caused by same child due to child-like logic' so take that as read somewhere up there, pretty please. 
> 
> ...*Hands*

Cooper is three and he has a cold and he's been stuck on the couch with a sippy cup of apple juice watching _Sesame Street_ all day while Mommy's in the kitchen. Daddy's outside -- it's not a work day, so Daddy woke Cooper up this morning, all rasping cough and dried gunk clogging up Cooper's nostrils, rubbed his cheek against Cooper's and said, "Think you'll have to stay inside while I go deal with the mess in the garage, Coop" -- and Cooper's getting tired and and hungry and Elmo's on TV and laughing in that scary way Cooper sometimes has dreams about and wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. He wants his Daddy, especially since this isn't a work day and Daddy's home all day, and Mommy's singing along to the radio which is nice but means Mommy can't hear him when he starts to sniffle and just say "Daddy," over and over again. 

He rubs his nose on his shirt-sleeve, climbs awkwardly down from the couch, and, with blankie in hand, starts wobbling toward the garage. He's not supposed to go out there by himself but Daddy's already outside so he won't be by himself; he decides to make a detour to the bottom of the steps and pick up Teddy, too, though, just in case. If he has Teddy, he's definitely not by himself and even if he gets in trouble, Teddy will, too, and they can be in trouble together. 

The door to the garage is open when Cooper finally makes it, having stopped to sneeze more times than his fingers can count; he's tried to keep track but he doesn't know all the way up to ten yet and can't go much past thirteen on a good day. Today, feeling all lopsided and heavy-headed, is not a good day. 

He takes the step down into the garage carefully, sits down and kicks his feet over the edge, then slides, then turns around and picks up Teddy and blankie again. Cooper doesn't see Daddy, not at first, but then he goes past the van and sees Daddy sitting at a workbench, working on something shiny. There's more shiny things on the floor next to Daddy's stool, pretty shiny things that Cooper's never seen before, and when he gets close enough, he sets Teddy down carefully and picks one of the shiny things up. 

That's when Daddy finally sees him. Cooper has enough time to lift his arms up -- half so Daddy can pick him up, half so he can ask Daddy about the shiny thing -- and then there's a loud noise and Daddy falls over and Cooper's ears are ringing. His eyes water but he's not crying, he's shocked more than anything, and he wants to set the shiny thing down and see if Daddy's all right, he's not answering when Cooper calls for him, but it's cold and heavy in his hand, something big and loud and mean. He doesn't know how it hurt Daddy or why, but Cooper huddles down next to Teddy, the blankie around his shoulders like a cape, and waits. Daddy will be okay. He has to be. And then Cooper's going to get in so much trouble, he knows it, he might even get a spanking. 

Mommy comes running into the garage just as soon as Cooper decides that maybe a spanking will be worth it because he made it out here and used the shiny thing by himself like a big boy. She's screaming as soon as she sees Daddy and Cooper wonders why, wonders if it has anything to do with the big puddle that Daddy must have fallen into. Daddy's going to be in trouble for making a mess and for playing in it instead of cleaning it up. Maybe that's why she's screaming. 

She stops when she sees Cooper sitting there, though, stops as soon as she sees the shiny thing he's holding. "Baby," she says. "Put it down. Okay? You have to put it down and then we can check on Daddy, please put it down for Mommy, Coop." 

"What is it?" Cooper asks. He doesn't look away from Mommy, just keeps his hand around the shiny thing because, even more than Teddy, it feels like it's his. Maybe it is? Maybe Mommy and Daddy bought it for him, for his birthday, because that's coming in -- Mommy said two months, yesterday, and Cooper's not exactly sure how many days a month is but two's not a very big number so it must be soon. 

"It's a gun, baby," Mommy says, and she's crying. 

Cooper doesn't know why she's crying and he feels bad -- did he make her cry? -- but she said the shiny thing's a _gun_ and Cooper's heard of those before. They're to protect people from bad guys, that's what Daddy always told him, but if it hurt Daddy, then -- does that mean Daddy was a bad guy? "Was Daddy a bad guy?"

Mommy takes in a big breath and says, "No, Coop. This was just an accident, okay? Everything will be okay, you just need to give me the gun." 

Cooper tilts his head and points the shiny thing -- the gun -- at Mommy. Guns are for protection, in case there's a bad guy, that's what Daddy said, and so if Mommy isn't a bad guy like Daddy was, Cooper guesses, it won't hurt her. He thinks about that for a second, decides it makes sense, and then pulls. 

Mommy falls to the ground and she's screaming and it's loud, louder than Elmo when he starts to laugh. Cooper grips the gun in one hand and Teddy in the other, scoots backwards as much as he can until he hits the garage wall. Mommy's asking him for help, to go get her phone or her purse, but she's loud and Cooper doesn't feel good and he's scared, the gun hurt _Mommy_ , so he starts to cry as well, little hitching sobs that make snot bubbles come out of his nose. 

He's not sure how long it is before Mommy goes quiet but Cooper's already stopped crying. He's still hungry and now his butt's a little cold but he doesn't want to move, doesn't want to get in trouble. He sits there, waits, and soon enough, two men come out of the house and into the garage. They're tall, _really_ tall, and Cooper can't see their faces until one of them crouches next to Mommy. 

_Not dead yet_ , he says, _but soon_.

He has a pretty voice. Cooper leans forward, drags Teddy with him, and the man looks at him, green eyes flickering to black for a minute. Cooper leans back, scared, and clutches the gun to his chest. These might be _real_ bad guys. 

_Father was dead instantly_ , the other man says, and he drops to a knee in front of the workbench, in front of Cooper. "Hey, kiddo," he says. "Shot your parents, huh?" 

"Daddy said the gun will keep us safe if people try to hurt us," Cooper says, sniffles. "It hurt Mommy and Daddy -- that means they were going to hurt me. Would it hurt you?" 

The man gives Cooper a sad smile, says, "You can try it, if you want, just to be sure." 

_Sam_ , the other man says, but the one in front of Cooper, Sam, holds out one hand to the side and stops him. 

Cooper looks closer, takes in yellow eyes, a weird smell like when Daddy grills steaks, and then shoots the gun at the man, at Sam. Whatever comes out of the gun, it stops halfway between them, and falls to the ground. Cooper looks at it, looks at Sam, looks at the gun, then tosses everything -- gun, blankie, Teddy -- to one side and scrambles into Sam's lap. "I'm hungry," he says, and sneezes green crud right onto Sam's shirt. 

\--

Sam and the other one, Dean, take Cooper inside and feed him. Dean makes him a peanut-butter-and-Nutella sandwich, sets it on the table along with another sippy cup of juice while Sam gets him in the booster seat. Cooper eats, eyes wide as he watches them, watches Dean fix a couple more sandwiches, watches as he gives one to Sam, who sits at the table with Cooper, and keeps the other for himself. Dean hops onto the counter the way Cooper always wanted to but got in trouble for doing when he tried, and Cooper says, "Not s'posed to sit like that," with his mouth full. 

Dean makes a funny noise but Sam says, "Sure he is." 

Cooper gives him a look, horrified, because Mommy will see him and then -- but Mommy's outside and she's bad anyway, so Cooper doesn't have to listen to her anymore. Right?

"Are you going to take care of me now?" Cooper asks, once he's finished his sandwich and is gnawing on the carrot sticks Dean gave him. 

This time it's Sam who makes the noise. He looks at Dean, who shrugs, says, _You're the one that felt the urge to come here, Sammy. Think it's because we're supposed to be adopting kids? Figured keeping hell in line was as parental as it was supposed to get._

Sam's quiet for a long moment, his yellow eyes glinting, turning white. Cooper's kind of fascinated, because Dean's went black in the garage, and now Sam's are changing colours, that is _so cool_. "Will my eyes change colour, too?" he asks. "Are you a superhero? Will I be a superhero?" 

"Superhero's not quite the job description, kid," Dean says. 

Cooper frowns, looks at Sam. Sam looks back at him, finally asks, "Would you want your eyes to change colour?" 

He thinks, nods. "Yes," he says. "Can you make them?" 

_It could be useful_ , Sam says, to Dean. He's talking slow; that means he's thinking, Cooper knows that, it's the same way Mommy sounds -- sounded -- when she was trying to convince him to go to bed or that baths were good for him. _Humans can go lots of places demons can't. If we did it right, then --_

_Been married practically our whole lives_ , Dean says. _I guess adoption's kinda the next step._

They look at each other and they look -- they look the way Cooper did the first time he saw a rainbow. Rainbows are awesome and kind of scary; they're paint in the sky and that's not normal but they are pretty and they never hurt him, so. 

"Would you want to live with us?" Dean asks. Cooper nods, immediately. They're tall and their eyes change colour and when they talk to each other, it sounds like the best thing Cooper's ever heard. "We'd need to adopt you." 

"And it would hurt," Sam adds. "Just a for a moment, but it'll hurt worse than anything you've ever felt before." 

Cooper frowns, chews on his bottom lip. "Worse than when I fell off the swing?" he asks. Sam nods. "Worse than when I fell off the bed?" Sam nods again. Cooper's frown grows deeper. "But my eyes will change colour once it's over?" 

"It might take a few days, but yeah," Dean says. "And you won't need to see a doctor, either." 

That's good. Cooper remembers going to the doctor and getting shots. He's not a big fan of needles though the lolly was nice. He takes a deep breath, says, "Okay," and then adds, quick, "I wanna get Teddy and blankie first, though." 

Sam nods, the slightest of smiles on his lips, and Dean laughs, says, _Hell is never gonna recover from this_.

"What's hell?" Cooper asks. 

"Home," Dean says. "That's where Sam and I live. If you come with us, that's where you'll live, too. Did -- uh. Did your Mommy or Daddy ever say anything about hell?" Cooper thinks, shakes his head. "It's not always the nicest place," Dean says, "but you'll be fine with us." 

Cooper nods, asks, "Do we need to take the gun with us to keep us safe from the bad guys?" 

Dean laughs and Sam's grinning when Cooper looks at him. "Nah, kid," Dean says. "We'll be fine." 

"I'm tired," Cooper says. "Wanna go to sleep. Can we go?"

_Jesus_ , Dean says. _He's just as bad as you at this age, Sammy._

_He doesn't have an older brother, though_ , Sam says. _Maybe…_

Dean sighs, jumps down from the counter. _Maybe we should get him one, that what you're thinking? Fuck. Hell's gonna be a daycare soon. I don't think that's what Azazel had in mind when he was planning on you taking over, sweetheart. 'Course, we ain't done much of what he had in mind, so why not this. Shit. Okay, parents, sure. Why not._

"You said bad words," Cooper says. "You have to put money in the bad word jar." 

"First rule of livin' with us," Dean says, ruffling Cooper's hair and then pulling a hankie from his back pocket, wiping Cooper's nose. "There's no such things as bad words. You can say whatever you want, okay?"

Cooper looks at Dean, looks at Sam, looks back at Dean. "Crap," he says, and then flinches back just a little, because that word always got him a swat on the butt. Dean doesn't stop smiling and Sam -- Sam's eating the last of his sandwich like he didn't even hear Cooper. "Darn." Still nothing. So Cooper pulls out the big words, the ones he's not supposed to have heard Daddy say when they were in the car. "Fuck'n asshole?"

Dean laughs, picks Cooper up and sets Cooper on his hip. "Come on, kid. Let's go get Teddy and blankie and we'll blow this fucking joint. Okay?" 

"'Kay, fuck'n asshole," Cooper says again, and giggles when Dean bounces him on the way to the garage.


End file.
